Multimedia Publications are Gaining in Popularity

Printed publications have followed a similar format for decades now, however the rise in new technologies has led to some changes in the way individuals get their information. Print media still remains an excellent way to communicate with readers by supplying them with both text and picture content as needed. However, it does leave out one thing: interactivity.

One of the reasons given for the rise in popularity of electronic publishing is the fact that it gives readers much more opportunities to interact with the content that they are viewing, in addition to allowing content types that simply cannot be reproduced easily in print. When reading an article on a website, a reader can, for example, click a link to see a detailed graph, watch a video presentation, access a tool such as a calculator (useful especially in the fields of finance and health), plus go directly to sales pages of any products or services that are referenced in the article.

Publications in digital format also allow better interaction between the reader and the company. Readers may leave comments on an article they’ve read or ask questions about it. Since they are already on the website of the company in question, it will be far easier to get them to explore other content as they are already on the web.

Sharing is made much easier in the “online” world as it can be done with a simple click on a button. The article link could then be shared via social media or sent by email. On the other hand, the process of sharing an article in a printed publication would be quite cumbersome, especially to someone on the other end of the globe, as it would require sending the physical publication over to them.

Lower costs of publishing are also responsible for many businesses posting their publications online instead of in print format. The only costs incurred for the production of the publication would be the design and creation of the content, leaving out costs for printing and distribution.

Is digital publishing an appropriate option for you? This would mainly depend on your needs and above all, those of your readership. Are your readers used to receiving printed media, or do they do most of their reading online? Is the use of the internet for information gathering and research highly prevalent in your industry, or are things still mostly done on paper? These are questions that you may want to ask yourself.

Of course, you can always do both: send out a printed publication to those who want one and issue a digital edition of the same publication on your website for readers who prefer to get their content in a digital format. You always have the option of including your website URL in the printed edition so that readers who want to access multimedia content such as videos can view your site and do so. This would be a very cost effective way of ensuring that all of your readers are satisfied with the way your information is delivered.